67
St. Ampliatus Bishop and martyr, mentioned by St. Paul with Sts.
Narcissus and Urban bishop, joining St. Andrew in missionary
labors in the Balkans.
Ampliatus was martyred there with Sts. Narcissus and Urban.
They were
slain by Jews and Gentiles for the Gospel of Christ: Romans,
16, 8, 9, 11.
Romæ, via
Aurélia,
natális sanctórum Mártyrum Basílidis,
Cyríni, Náboris et Nazárii militum, qui, in
persecutióne Diocletiáni et Maximiáni, sub
Aurélio Præfécto, ob Christiáni
nóminis confessiónem, detrúsi in cárcerem
et scorpiónibus laceráti, tandem cápite
truncáti sunt.
Sts Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor, and Nazarius
all soldiers martyrs At Rome, on the Aurelian Way, during the
persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, and under the prefect Aurelius,
the birthday of the holy martyrs Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor, and
Nazarius, all soldiers who were cast into prison for the confession of
the Christian name, scourged with knotted whips, and finally beheaded.
Nicǽæ, in Bithynia,
sanctæ Antonínæ Mártyris, quæ, in
eádem persecutióne, a Priscilliáno Præside
jussa est fústibus cædi, suspéndi in
equúleo, latéribus laniári et flammis
incéndi, ac demum gládio necári.
Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor,
and Nazarius MM (RM)
3rd V-end . Ss.
Basilides
And His Companions, Martyrs
Seeing
that SS. Basilides, Quirinus (or Cyrinus),
Nabor and Nazarius are commemorated this day in the Roman calendar
as well as
in the martyrology, and that
collects in their
honour form part of the liturgy of the Mass wherever the Roman rite is
followed, they cannot be passed over in silence in such a work as the
present.
But the reputed “acts” of this group of four are altogether spurious.
The
Cyrinus is probably no other than the Quirinus who has already been
discussed
on June 4. The whole story seems to have arisen out of a confusion of
names in
the Hieronymianum, and to have been
invented afterwards to explain the occurrence of these names together.
The
combination is also found in certain early manuscripts of the Sacramentarium Gelasianum, and in the
calendar of Fronto. Three different “passions” exist, in one of which
Basilides
appears alone, and so far as the fact of his martyrdom is concerned,
and his
burial near the fourth milestone on the Via Aurelia, we are probably on
safe
ground. If the mention of Nabor and Nazarius has any reference to the
cult of
genuine martyrs, these probably belong to Milan but the whole tangle is
too
intricate to admit of any certain solution.
Three
separate sets of alleged "acts" of St Basilides and
companions have been
printed by the Bollandists in the third volume for June of the Acta Sanctorum. The most satisfactory
discussion of the problem is probably that of Delehaye, in his CMH., pp.
315—316 but see also J. P. Kirsch, Der stadtrömische Christliche Festkalender (1924), pp. 60—63.
Roman
Martyrology contains this laus: "At Rome on the
Aurelian Way, the birthday of the holy martyrs Basilides, Cyrinus,
Nabor, and Nazarius, soldiers who were cast into prison in the
persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, under the prefect Aurelius for
confession of the Christian name, scourged with scorpions and
beheaded." The quartet is mentioned in the sacramentaries of Pope Saint
Gelasius and Saint Gregory the Great as interred on the Aurelian road.
Their unreliable acta states that they were four soldiers in the army
of Maxentius.
It seems, however, more likely that this group is the result
of a
confusion of names in the martyrologies. Basilides is probably the
Roman martyr of June 10, who died in the late 3rd century; Cyrinus
(Quirinus), the martyr of June 4; and Nabor and Nazarius, two Milanese
martyrs of whom nothing reliable is known. All four were venerated
together on June 12 until 1969, when their feast was suppressed because
of this confusion.
In 756, Saint Chrodegang, bishop of Metz procured the relics
of several
martyrs from Rome. He placed those of Nazarius in the abbey of Lorch in
the diocese of Worms and those of Nabor in that of Saint Hilary (now
corrupted to Saint Avol's) in the diocese of Metz (Benedictines,
Farmer, Husenbeth). |
 St.
Antonina, martyred At
Nicaea
in Bithynia, She was scourged by order of the governor
Priscillian during the same persecution, then racked, lacerated,
exposed to the fire, and finally put to the sword.
Nicǽæ, in Bithynia, sanctæ Antonínæ
Mártyris, quæ, in eádem persecutióne, a
Priscilliáno Præside jussa est fústibus cædi,
suspéndi in equúleo, latéribus laniári et
flammis incéndi, ac demum gládio necári.
At Nicaea in Bithynia, St. Antonina, martyr.
She was scourged by order of the governor Priscillian during the same
persecution, then racked, lacerated, exposed to the fire, and finally
put to the sword.
304? St Antonina, Martyr
The St Antonina who is
commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology was a woman who is
said to
have suffered martyrdom under the governor Priscillian during the
persecution
of Diocletian. She is thought to be identical with the saint or saints
of the
same name also honoured in the Roman Martyrology on March 1
and May 4. That she was cruelly tortured seems certain, but
the
mode of her death is doubtful. According to one account, she was
suspended by
an arm for three days, then imprisoned, and finally burnt at the stake;
according to another she was stretched on the iron horse, her sides
were torn
with combs, and she was slain with the sword; whilst a third tradition
relates
that after suffering many torments she was placed in a sack or a cask
and
thrown into a marsh. Her head is supposed to have been taken to Prague
in 1673.
Whereas the Greek Menaion claims her
as a martyr of Nicaea (Cea) in Bithynia, the Spaniards have adopted her
as a
virgin saint of Ceja in Galicia, and the Aegean islanders as belonging
to the
island of Cea. Actually she may have suffered at Nicomedia, for that is
the
city mentioned in the ancient Syriac Breviarium, though
here we find a man, Antoninus, net Antonina. But the
Greek
synaxaries are agreed in retaining the feminine form, and they also
keep to
Nicaea, and to the name Priscillian as that of the governor. It is
curious that
in the case of a martyr so obscure, for whom no formal passio
is forthcoming, the Hieronymianum supplies
an abundance of detail, rarely met with in other
entries.
The
question is discussed very fully by Delehaye, in
his CMH., p. 229. - See also the Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. xxx (1911),
p. 165; and the Constantinople Synaxary (ed.
Delehaye), cc. 500 and 746.
|
325 Amphion of Cilicia
"an excellent confessor ..." bishop of Epiphania, Cilicia attended the
Council of Nicaea as a member of the Catholic party. He
was elected to the see of Nicomedia. Saint Athanasius commended
Amphion's writings B (RM)
Amphion is described in the Roman Martyrology as "an
excellent
confessor in the time of Galerius Maximian." He was then bishop of
Epiphania, Cilicia. Amphion attended the Council of Nicaea as a member
of the Catholic party. He was elected to the see of Nicomedia. Saint
Athanasius commended Amphion's writings (Benedictines). |
343
St. Olympius Bishop of Enos, in Rumelia, he was a dedicated foe of the
heresy
of
Arianism and endured persecution, including removal from his see, by
the Arian Emperor Constantius II. Olympius also defended another
opponent of Arianism, St. Athanasius
In Thrácia sancti
Olympii Epíscopi, qui, ab
Ariánis sede pulsus, Conféssor occúbuit.
In
Thrace, St. Olumpius, a bishop, who was driven
out of his diocese by the Arians, and died a confessor.
Olympius of Enos B
(RM) Bishop Olympius of Enos (Aenos) in
Rumelia was a contemporary of Saint Athanasius. For his opposition to
Arianism he was deposed by the Emperor Constantius (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia). |
4th v. St.
Amphion Bishop defender of
the faith, praised by St. Athanasius bishop of Epiphania, Cicilia and
then the bishop of Nicomedia
when Arians began to spread their heresy. He also attended the
Council of Nicaea in 325.
In Cilícia sancti
Amphiónis Epíscopi, qui,
témpore Galérii Maximiáni, Conféssor fuit
egrégius.
In
Cilicia, Bishop St. Amphion, a celebrated
confessor of the time of Galerius Maximian. |
4th v. Saint John the Hermit lived in Egypt is
mentioned in the Life of St Onuphrius.
After he had
buried St Onuphrius, St Paphnutius came upon
an oasis which impressed him with its beauty and abundance of
fruit-bearing trees. Four youths inhabiting this place came to him from
out of the wilderness. The youths told Abba Paphnutius that in their
childhood they had lived in the city of Oxyrhynchus (Upper Thebaid) and
they had studied together. They had burned with the desire to devote
their lives to God. Making their plans to go off into the desert, the
young men left the city and after several days' journey, they reached
this place.
A man radiant with heavenly glory met them and led them to a
desert
Elder. "We have lived here six years already," said the youths. "Our
Elder dwelt here one year and then he died. Now we live here alone, we
eat the fruit of the trees, and we have water from a spring." The
youths gave him their names, they were Sts John, Andrew, Heraclemon and
Theophilus (Dec. 2).
The youths struggled separately the whole week long, but on
Saturday
and Sunday they gathered at the oasis and offered up common prayer. On
these days an angel would appear and commune them with the Holy
Mysteries. This time however, for Abba Paphnutius' sake, they did not
go off into the desert, but spent the whole week together at prayer.
On the following Saturday and
Sunday St Paphnutius together with the youths was granted to receive
the Holy Mysteries from the hands of the angel and to hear these words,
"Receive the
Imperishable Food, unending bliss and life eternal, the Body and Blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God."
St Paphnutius made bold to
ask the angel for permission to remain in
the desert to the end of his days. The angel replied that God had
decreed another path for him. He was to return to Egypt and tell the
Christians of the life of the desert-dwellers.
Having bid farewell to the youths, St Paphnutius reached the
edge of
the wilderness after a three day journey. Here he found a small skete,
and the brethren received him with love. Abba Paphnutius related
everything that he had learned about the holy Fathers whom he had
encountered in the desert. The brethren wrote a detailed account of
what St Paphnutius said, and deposited it in the church, where all who
wished to do so could read it. St Paphnutius gave thanks to God, Who
had granted him to learn about the exalted lives of the hermits of the
Thebaid, and he returned to his own monastery.
St John is also commemorated on
December 2 |
6th v. St.
Ternan Missionary and bishop a disciple of St.
Palladius missionary bishop among the Picts
in Scotland
5th Or 6th V. St
Ternan, Bishop
It is
tolerably certain that St Ternan was actively
employed in the conversion of the Picts and was one of their earliest
bishops,
but the accounts of him that have come down to us are
so confused and conflicting that it is hopeless to attempt to
reconstruct his
history. Even his date and nationality are disputed. According to one
tradition, he had been for many years a monk in the monastery of
Culross,
whilst the Aberdeen Breviary states that he was a native of the
Scottish
province of the Mearns, and that he received baptism from St Palladius,
whose
disciple he was. A gloss upon the Félire of
Oengus declares indeed that he was identical with Palladius. Perhaps he
was
consecrated a bishop in succession to St Ninian by Palladius in 432, or
he may
have received his commission directly from Rome, which he is said to
have
visited. He appears to have had his headquarters at Abernethy—the
capital of
the Pictish kings—and to have died there. His body, however, was buried
and
venerated at Liconium, or Banchory Ternan as it came to be called.
About the
year 1530 the compiler of the Aberdeen Breviary saw St Ternan’s skull
at
Banchory. A bell which is supposed miraculously to have followed the
saint from
Rome was also preserved there until the Reformation. Some of the
saint’s relics
were venerated in Aberdeen cathedral, which is thought to have been
originally
dedicated to him; several churches and chapels in that part of Scotland
actually bore or bear his name. His cultus spread to
Ireland and his name appears on this day in the Félire
of Oengus and in other old Irish
calendars, but there is no reliable evidence of his having even visited
the
island.
An
account of St Ternan is given in the Acta Sanctorum, June,
vol. iii, but it
is not wonderful that Father Papebroch, with the limited sources at his
disposal, was unable to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. Things
are not
much better even now, but the reader should consult Forbes, KSS., pp.
450—451, and
also W. Douglas Simpson’s booklets, The
Origins of Christianity in Aberdeenshire (1925), The
Historical St Columba (1927) and On Certain Saints
and Professor Watson (1928).
Sometimes
called Torannan. According to tradition, he was a disciple of St.
Palladius. He worked for many as
a missionary bishop among the Picts
in Scotland and he is
honored as the founder of the abbey of
Culross, in Fifeshire, where he died. Bishop of the Picts, flourished
in the sixth century.
Much obscurity attaches to his history, and it is difficult
to
reconcile his chronology as given by various writers. Some say that he
was consecrated by St. Palladius in 440, others that he was a
monk of Culross in Fife, one of the monasteries founded by St. Serf, or
Servan, the tutor of St. Kentigern. The Picts were not converted till
about 570, by the zeal of St. Columba. St. Kentigern died in 603, and
St. Serf of Culross died in 583 (feast 1 July). It is safe to assert
that St. Ternan was a contemporary of St. Serf. In the "Aberdeen
Martyrology" there is mention of "the Gospel of Matthew belonging to
St. Ternan", which was enshrined in a metal case or cumdach (book
shrine), covered with silver and gold, after the Irish fashion." He
must not be confounded with St. Trumwine. |
Sancti Joánnis a
sancto
Facúndo, ex Eremitárum sancti Augustíni Ordine,
Confessóris, qui migrávit in cælum prídie
hujus diéi.
St.
John of St. Facundus, confessor of the Order of the Hermits of St.
Augustine, who died on the 11th of June. |
 Onúphrii
Anachorétæ In
Ægypto sancti , qui in vasta erémo sexagínta annis
vitam religióse
perégit, et, magnis virtútibus ac
méritis clarus, migrávit in cælum.
Ipsíus vero insígnia gesta Paphnútius Abbas
conscrípsit.
Onuphrius, an
anchoret In Egypt,
St. , who
for sixty years led a religious life in the desert, and renowned for
great virtues and merits departed for heaven. His admirable deeds
have been recorded by Abbot Paphnutius.
Onuphrios
Orthodoxe Kirche: 12. Juni
Onuphrios gehört zu
einer Gruppe von Einsiedlern, die im 4. Jahrhundert in der Thebais in
Ägypten lebten und über die der Mönch Paphnutios Viten
geschrieben hat. Nach diesem Bericht lebte Onuphrios, als Paphnutios
auf ihn stieß bereits 60 Jahre alleine in der Wüste. Ein
Baum, der vor seiner Höhle gewachsen war, versorgte ihn mit
verschiedenen Früchten und spendete ihm Schatten. Samstags kam ein
Engel, brachte Onuphrios die Kommunion und unterhielt sich bis Sonntags
mit ihm. Onuphrios starb, nachdem er Paphnutios seine Lebensgeschichte
erzählt hatte und wurde von ihm begraben.
400 St Onuphrius
Amongst the many hermits
in the Egyptian desert during the fourth and fifth centuries was a holy
man
called Onuphrius. The little that is known of him is derived from an
account
attributed to a certain Abbot Paphnutius of a series of visits paid by
him to
some of the hermits of the Thebaid. This account seems to have been
committed
to writing by one or more of the monks to whom it was related, and
several
versions of it became current. Obviously the story has lost nothing in
the
telling.
Paphnutius undertook
the pilgrimage in order to study the eremitic life and to discover
whether he
himself was called to lead it. For sixteen days after leaving his
monastery he
wandered in the desert, meeting with one or two strange and edifying
adventures, but on the seventeenth day he was startled at the sight of
what
appeared to be an aged man with hair and beard falling to the ground,
but
covered with fur like an animal and wearing a loincloth of foliage. So
alarming
was the apparition that he began to run away. The figure, however,
called after
him, inviting him to return and assuring him that he also was a man and
a
servant of God. They entered into conversation and Paphnutius learned
that the
stranger’s name was Onuphrius, that he had once been a monk in a
monastery of
many brethren, but that he had felt a vocation for the solitary life
which he
had now led for seventy years. In reply to further questions he
admitted that
he had suffered severely from hunger and thirst, from extremes of
temperature,
and from violent temptations. Nevertheless God had given him
consolation and
had nourished him with the dates that grew on a palm-tree beside his
cell. He
then conducted Paphnutius to his cave, where they spent the rest of the
day
discoursing of heavenly things. At sunset some bread and water suddenly
appeared before them and they were wonderfully refreshed after
partaking of
this food. All that night they prayed together.
In the morning
Paphnutius was distressed to see that a great change had come over his
host,
who was evidently at the point of death. But Onuphrius said, “Fear not,
brother
Paphnutius, for the Lord of His infinite mercy has sent you here to
bury me.”
To a suggestion made by Paphnutius that he should remain on in the cell
after
his host’s death, the aged hermit replied that God willed it otherwise.
He then
asked to be commended to the prayers and oblations of the faithful for
whom he
promised to intercede, and after having blessed Paphnutius he
prostrated
himself to the ground and gave up the ghost. His visitor made a shroud
for him
with half his tunic which he rent asunder. He then buried the old man
in a
cleft of the rock which he covered with stones. No sooner was this done
than
the cave crumbled and the date palm faded away, thus clearly indicating
to
Paphnutius that he was not intended to linger in that place.
It would
not be difficult to compile a long
bibliography of St Onuphrius. The Greek and Latin texts are indicated
in BHG.,
nn. 1378—1382, and BHL., nn. 6334—6338, but a sufficient selection may
be found
in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol.
iii. There are also other oriental versions, notably in Coptic and
Ethiopic.
See, in particular, W. Till, Koptische
Heiligen- und Martyrer-Legenden (1935)
pp. 14—19; E. A.
Wallis Budge, Miscellaneous Coptic Texts (1955) ; W. E. Crum, “Discours de
Pisenthios” in Revue
de l’Orient chrétien, vol. x (1956), pp. 38—67. Although
Pisenthios tells us nothing new about Onuphrius, his sermon shows that
already,
about A.D. 600, the feast was
celebrated with solemnity. St Onuphrius has
also been discussed at length in the essay of C. A. Williams, Oriental Affinities of the Legend of the
Hairy Anchorite (Illinois Studies, vols. x and xi, 1926), but see
the
criticism in Analecta Bollandiana, vol.
xlvii (1929), pp. 138—141. It does not
seem that the popularity of the names Onfroi, Humfrey, and their
derivatives in
medieval. France and England was due to a cult of St Onuphrius
introduced by
crusaders: cf. E. G. Withycombe, Oxford
Dictionary of English Christian Names (1950).
St Paphnutius, who led an
ascetical life in the Thebaid desert in
Egypt, has left us an account of St Onuphrius the Great and the Lives
of other fourth century hermits: Timothy the Desert Dweller, the abbas
Andrew, Charalampus, Theophilus, and others.
It
occurred to St Paphnutius to go to the inner desert in
order to see
if there were a monk who labored for the Lord more than he did. He took
a little bread and water and went into the most remote part of the
desert. After four days he reached a cave and found in it the body of
an Elder who had been dead for several years. Having buried the hermit,
St Paphnutius went on farther. After several more days he found another
cave, and from the marks in the sand he realized that the cave was
inhabited. At sundown he saw a herd of buffalo and walking among them a
man.
This man was naked, but was
covered with long hair as if with clothing. This was Abba Timothy the
Desert-Dweller.
Seeing a fellow
man, Abba Timothy thought that he was
seeing an apparition, and he began to pray. St Paphnutius finally
convinced the hermit that he was actually a living man and a fellow
Christian. Abba Timothy prepared food and water for him. He related
that he had been living in the desert for thirty years, and that St
Paphnutius was the first man he had seen. In his youth, Timothy had
lived in a cenobitic monastery, but he wanted to live alone. Abba
Timothy left his monastery and went to live near a city, sustaining
himself by the work of his own hands (he was a weaver). Once a woman
came to him with an order and he fell into sin with her. Having come to
his senses, the fallen monk went far into the desert, where he
patiently endured tribulation and sickness.
When he was at the point of
dying from hunger, he received healing in a miraculous manner.
From that time Abba
Timothy had lived peacefully in complete solitude,
eating dates from the trees, and quenching his thirst with water from a
spring. St Paphnutius besought the Elder that he might remain with him
in the wilderness. But he was told that he would be unable to bear the
demonic temptations which beset desert-dwellers. Instead, he supplied
him with dates and water, and blessed him to go on his way.
Having rested at a desert monastery, St Paphnutius undertook
a second
journey into the innermost desert, hoping to find another holy ascetic
who would profit his soul. He went on for seventeen days, until his
supply of bread and water was exhausted. St Paphnutius collapsed twice
from weakness, and an angel strengthened him.
On the seventeenth day St Paphnutius reached a hilly place
and sat down
to rest. Here he caught sight of a man approaching him, who was covered
from head to foot with white hair and girded his loins with leaves of
desert plants. The sight of the Elder frightened Abba Paphnutius, and
he jumped up and fled up the hill. The Elder sat down at the foot of
the hill. Lifting his head, he saw St Paphnutius, and called him to
come down.
This was the great
desert-dweller, Abba Onuphrius. At the request of St Paphnutius, he
told him about himself.
St Onuphrius had lived in
complete isolation in the wilds of the wilderness for sixty years. In
his youth he had been raised at the Eratus monastery near the city of
Hermopolis. Having learned from the holy Fathers about the hardships
and lofty life of the desert-dwellers, to whom the Lord sent help
through His angels, St Onuphrius longed to imitate their exploits. He
secretly left the monastery one night and saw a brilliant ray of light
before him.
St Onuphrius became frightened
and decided to go back, but the voice of his Guardian Angel told him to
go into the desert to serve the Lord.
After walking six or seven
miles, he saw a cave. At that moment the ray
of light vanished. In the cave was an old man. St Onuphrius stayed with
him to learn of his manner of life and his struggle with demonic
temptations. When the Elder was convinced that St Onuphrius had been
enlightened somewhat, he then led him to another cave and left him
there alone to struggle for the Lord. The Elder visited him once a
year, until he fell asleep in the Lord.
At the request of St Paphnutius, Abba Onuphrius told him of
his labors
and ascetic feats, and of how the Lord had cared for him.
Near the cave where he lived was a date-palm tree and a
spring of pure
water issued forth. Twelve different branches of the palm tree bore
fruit each month in succession, and so the monk endured neither hunger
nor thirst. The shade of the palm tree sheltered him from the noonday
heat.
An angel brought Holy
Communion
to the saint each Saturday and Sunday, and to the other desert-dwellers
as well.
The monks conversed until
evening, when Abba Paphnutius noticed a loaf
of white bread lying between them, and also a vessel of water. After
eating, he Elders spent the night in prayer. After the singing of the
morning hymns, St Paphnutius saw that the face of the venerable
Onuphrius had become transformed, and that frightened him. St Onuphrius
said, "God, Who
is Merciful to all, has sent you to me so that you might bury my body.
Today I shall finish my earthly course and depart to my Christ, to live
forever in eternal rest."
St Onuphrius then asked
Abba
Paphnutius to remember him to all the brethren, and to all Christians.
St Paphnutius wanted to
remain there after the death of Abba Onuphrius.
However, the holy ascetic told him that it was not God's
will for him
to stay there, he was to return to his own monastery instead and tell
everyone about the virtuous lives of the desert-dwellers. Having then
blessed Abba Paphnutius and bid him farewell, St Onuphrius prayed with
tears and sighs, and then he lay down upon the earth, uttering his
final words,
"Into Thy hands, my
God, I commend my spirit," and died.
St
Paphnutius wept and
tore off a portion of his garment, and with it covered the body of the
great ascetic.
He placed it in the crevice of a large rock, which was
hollow like a
grave, and covered it over with a multitude of small stones. Then he
began to pray that the Lord would permit him to remain in that place
until the end of his life. Suddenly, the cave fell in, the palm tree
withered, and the spring of water dried up. Realising that he had not
been given a blessing to remain, St Paphnutius set out on his return
journey.
After four days Abba Paphnutius reached a cave, where he met
an
ascetic, who had lived in the desert for more than 60 years.
Except for the two other Elders, with whom he labored, this
monk had
seen no one in all that time. Each week these three had gone on their
solitary paths into the wilderness, and on Saturday and Sunday they
gathered for psalmody, and ate the bread which an angel brought them.
Since it was Saturday, they had gathered together. After eating the
bread provided by the angel, they spent the whole night at prayer. As
he was leaving, St Paphnutius asked the names of the Elders, but they
said,
"God,
Who knows
everything, also knows our names. Remember us, that we may see one
another in God's heavenly habitations."
Continuing on his way, St
Paphnutius came upon an oasis which impressed
him with its beauty and abundance of fruit-bearing trees.
Four youths inhabiting this place came to him from out of
the
wilderness. The youths told Abba Paphnutius that in their childhood
they had lived in the city of Oxyrhynchus (Upper Thebaid) and they had
studied together. They had burned with the desire to devote their lives
to God. Making their plans to go off into the desert, the young men
left the city and after several days' journey, they reached this
place. A man radiant with heavenly glory met them and led them to
a desert Elder. "We have lived here six years already," said the
youths. "Our Elder dwelt here one year and then he died. Now we live
here alone, we eat the fruit of the trees, and we have water from a
spring." The youths gave him their names, they were Sts John, Andrew,
Heraklemon and Theophilus (Dec. 2). The youths struggled
separately the whole week long, but on Saturday and Sunday they
gathered at the oasis and offered up common prayer. On these days an
angel would appear and commune them with the Holy Mysteries. This time
however, for Abba Paphnutius' sake, they did not go off into the
desert, but spent the whole week together at prayer. On the following
Saturday and Sunday St Paphnutius together with the youths was granted
to receive the Holy Mysteries from the hands of the angel and to hear
these words, "Receive the Imperishable Food, unending bliss and life
eternal, the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God."
St Paphnutius made bold to ask the angel for permission to remain in
the desert to the end of his days. The angel replied that God had
decreed another path for him. He was to return to Egypt and tell the
Christians of the life of the desert-dwellers.
Having bid farewell to the youths, St Paphnutius reached the
edge of
the wilderness after a three day journey. Here he found a small skete,
and the brethren received him with love. Abba Paphnutius related
everything that he had learned about the holy Fathers whom he had
encountered in the desert. The brethren wrote a detailed account of
what St Paphnutius said, and deposited it in the church, where all who
wished to do so could read it. St Paphnutius gave thanks to God, Who
had granted him to learn about the exalted lives of the hermits of the
Thebaid, and he returned to his own monastery.
|
599 St.
Cominus
Baithen Mor;
Baithen the Great; Comin; Cominus Patron saint of Ardcavan, Ireland,
abbot Part of Saint Columba's
mission to Britain in 563
Born to a noble Irish
family. Monk. Abbot of Tiree Island, Scotland. Part of Saint Columba's
mission to Britain in 563, and may have been Columba's cousin. When
Columba died, leadership of the group passed to Baithen. Biographer of
Columba.
When Saint Baithen ate, before each bite he recited the
prayer "Deus in
adjutorium meum intende". When he worked the fields with the monks, he
held up one hand to Heaven, beseeching God, while with the other hand
he gathered the corn. A wise counsellor, his advice was sought by many
Irish saints. |
734 St. Peter of Mount
Athos first hermit to
reside upon Mount Athos in northern Greece; St Simeon touched his
staff
to the chains binding St Peter, and the chains melted away like wax.
Graced
with a vision from Our Lady, he journeyed to Mount Athos and took up
the life of a hermit, remaining there for half a century
St Peter of Mt. Athos
8th V. St Peter Of
Mount Athos
Many years before
any monastery had been built on Mount Athos in Macedonia a holy man
named Peter
lived as a solitary on its slopes. He is said to have been the first
Christian
hermit to settle in that district, but nothing is actually known of his
history. His relics were taken after his death to the monastery of St
Clement
and from thence, in the tenth century, to Thrace, where his cultus
was fostered. His legend as given
by Gregory Palamas, archbishop of Thessalonica, resembles many other
stories
related in the Greek Menaia: it may
be regarded as being of the nature of edifying fiction. In his youth,
we read,
Peter took up arms against the Saracens and was captured and
imprisoned. But St
Nicholas and St Simeon, to whom he appealed in his distress, came to
his assistance:
Simeon set him free, whilst Nicholas directed him on his way. Having
thus
regained his liberty he went to Rome, where St Nicholas introduced him
to the
pope, who gave him the monastic habit. He then embarked in a ship bound
for
Asia. Soon after they had started our Lady appeared to him in a vision
and bade
him spend the remainder of his life as a hermit on Mount Athos.
Accordingly, when
they had left Crete the captain landed him near his objective and he
entered
upon a penitential life. Besides enduring many hardships he had to meet
diabolical attacks. First he was assailed by legions of devils who
mocked him,
shot at him with arrows and pelted him with stones. He repelled them by
the
power of prayer. Afterwards they assumed the form of snakes which
struck terror
into his soul. But he prayed yet more fervently and they disappeared.
Then
Satan took the form of one of his former servants and begged him to
return to
the world, representing to him how greatly he was missed and how much
good he
might do to his neighbours. Greatly perturbed, Peter called upon our
Lady, who
responded by obliging the tempter to show himself in his true form and
then to
vanish. Finally the Evil One returned as an angel of light. Peter,
however,
overcame him by his humility. He said that he was unworthy to mix with
his
fellow men: much less could he expect to be visited by a celestial
being. Consequently
he refused to listen to the suggestion made to him by his supernatural
guest.
For fifty years he had lived on Mount Athos without seeing a human
creature
when at last he was discovered by a huntsman. To him the hermit told
his story.
Though the man wished to stay with him, Peter sent him back to his
home, requesting
him to return in a year’s time. When the hunter, accompanied by a
friend, kept
the appointment twelve months later they found Peter’s dead body.
This is
another example of a familiar type of pious
fiction to which the legend of St Onuphrius (see above) also belongs.
There are
two Greek texts preserved to us (see BHG., nn. 1505—1506). But it would
probably be going too far to treat Peter as an imaginary person who has
never
existed. C. A. Williams’s essay (in University
of Illinois Studies, vol. xi, pp. 427—509) on “Oriental Affinities
of the
Legend of the Hairy Anchorite”, shows that he is very imperfectly
grounded in
Christian hagiography. A more reliable discussion of the story of Peter
the
Athonite is to be found in Kirsopp Lake, Early
Days of Monasticism on Mount Athos (1909).
 Orthodoxe und
Katholische Kirche: 12. Juni
Peter vom AthosDie legendenhaft
ausgeschmückte Lebensgeschichte berichtet, daß Peter
(Petrus) aus Griechenland stammte, Soldat in Konstantinopel war und 667
in einem Krieg gegen die Muslime gefangengenommen wurde. Er führte
seine lange Gefangenschaft darauf zurück, daß er nicht in
ein Kloster gegangen war, wie er es vorgehabt hatte und begann zu
fasten und zu beten. Er wurde schließlich wundersam gerettet,
reiste nach Rom und wurde hier vom Papst als Mönch eingekleidet.
Er fuhr dann mit einem Schiff in das östliche Mittelmeer und ging
im Jahr 681 an der Stelle, an der das Schiff stehenblieb, an Land.
Hier, auf dem Berg Athos, lebte er 53 Jahre als Einsiedler. Erst kurz
vor seinem Tod wurde er von einem Jäger entdeckt. Peter war der
erste Einsiedler auf dem Berg Athos und damit Begründer der
mönchischen Tradition auf diesem Berg.
Saint Peter of Athos, a
Greek by birth, served as a soldier in the
imperial armies and he lived at Constantinople. In the year 667, during
a war with the Syrians, St Peter was taken captive and locked up in a
fortress in the city of Samara on the Euphrates River. For a long
time he languished in prison and he pondered over which of his sins had
brought God's chastisement upon him. St Peter remembered that once he
had intended to leave the world and go to a monastery, but he had not
done so. He began to observe a strict fast in the prison and to pray
fervently, and he besought St Nicholas the Wonderworker to intercede
before God for him.
St Nicholas appeared
in a
dream to Peter and advised him to call upon St Simeon the God-Receiver (Feb. 3) for
help. St Nicholas appeared to him once more in a dream, encouraging the
prisoner in patience and hope. The third time he appeared was not in a
dream, but with St Simeon the God-Receiver. St Simeon touched his staff
to the chains binding St Peter, and the chains melted away like wax.
The doors of the prison opened, and St Peter was free.
St Simeon the God-Receiver became invisible, but St Nicholas
conveyed
St Peter to the borders of the Greek territory.
Reminding him of his vow, St Nicholas became invisible. St
Peter then
journeyed to Rome to receive monastic tonsure at the tomb of the
Apostle Peter. Even here St Nicholas did not leave him without his
help. He appeared in a dream to the Pope of Rome and informed him of
the circumstances of St Peter's liberation from captivity, and he
commanded the Pope to tonsure the former prisoner into monasticism.
On the following day, in the midst of a throng of the people
who had
gathered for divine services, the Pope loudly exclaimed, "Peter, you
who are from the Greek lands, and whom St Nicholas has freed from
prison in Samara, come here to me." St Peter stood in front of the
Pope, who tonsured him into monasticism at the tomb of the Apostle
Peter.
The Pope taught St Peter
the
rules of monastic life and kept the monk by him.
Then with a blessing,
he sent St Peter to where God had appointed him to journey.
St Peter boarded a ship
sailing to the East. The shipowners, after
going ashore, besought St Peter to come and pray at a certain house,
where the owner and all the household lay sick.
St Peter healed them
through his
prayer.
The Most Holy Theotokos
appeared in a dream to St Peter and indicated
the place where he should live til the very end of his days: Mount
Athos.
When the ship arrived at Athos, it then halted of its own
accord. St
Peter realized that this was the place he was meant to go, and so he
went ashore. This was in the year 681. Peter then dwelt in the desolate
places of the Holy Mountain, not seeing another person for fifty-three
years. His clothing had become tattered, but his hair and beard had
grown out and covered his body in place of clothes.
At first St Peter was
repeatedly subjected to demonic assaults.
Trying to force the saint to abandon his cave, the demons
sometimes
took on the form of armed soldiers, and at other times of fierce beasts
and vipers that seemed ready to tear the hermit apart. St Peter
overcame the demonic attacks through fervent prayer to God and His Holy
Mother. Then the enemy resorted to trickery. Appearing under the guise
of a lad sent to him from his native home, he besought the monk with
tears to leave the wilderness and return to his own home. The saint
wept, but without hesitation he answered,
"Here have the Lord and the
Most
Holy Theotokos led me. I will not leave here without Her permission."
Hearing the Name of the Mother of God, the demon vanished.
After seven years the
devil came to St Peter in the guise of a radiant
angel and said that God was commanding him to go into the world for the
enlightenment and salvation of people in need of his guidance. The
experienced ascetic again replied that without the permission of the
Mother of God he would not forsake the wilderness. The devil
disappeared and did not bother to come near the saint anymore. The
Mother of God appeared to St Peter in a dream with St Nicholas and told
the brave hermit that after he had fasted for forty days, an angel
would bring him heavenly manna.
St Peter fasted, and on the
fortieth day he fortified himself with the heavenly manna, receiving
the strength for another forty-day fast.
Once, a hunter chasing
after a stag saw the naked man, covered with
hair and girded about the loins with leaves. He was afraid and was
about to flee, but St Peter stopped him and told him of his life. The
hunter asked to remain with him, but the saint sent him home. St Peter
gave the hunter a year for self-examination and forbade him to tell
anyone about meeting him. A year later the hunter returned with
his brother, who was afflicted with a demon, and several other
companions. When they entered the St Peter's cave, they saw that he had
already reposed. The hunter, with bitter tears, told his companions of
the life of St Peter. His brother, after merely touching the saint's
body, received healing. St Peter died in the year 734. His holy relics
were on Athos at the monastery of St Clement. During the Iconoclast
period the relics were hidden away, and in the year 969 they were
transferred to the Thracian village of Photokami.
St Peter once saw the Mother of God in a vision, and she
spoke of Her
earthly domain, Mount Athos: "I have chosen this mountain... and have
received it from My Son and God as an inheritance, for those who wish
to forsake worldly cares and strife.... Exceedingly do I love this
place. I will aid those who come to dwell here and who labor for God...
and keep His commandments.... I will lighten their afflictions and
labors, and shall be an invincible ally for the monks, invisibly
guiding and guarding them...."
Generations of Orthodox monks can attest to the truth of
these words.
The Mother of God is regarded as the Abbess of the Holy Mountain, not
just in name, but in actual fact.
For this reason, Mt. Athos is known as the "Garden of the
Theotokos."
Peter, originally a
soldier was captured by the Muslims and imprisoned until released
through the intervention of St. Simeon. He then went to Rome and
was granted the monastic habit by the pope himself. Graced
with a vision from Our Lady, he journeyed to Mount Athos and took up
the life of a hermit, remaining there for half a century. He overcame
severe trials and temptations, including assaults by the
devil. He is considered the first hermit to reside upon Mount Athos,
sparking the tradition which culminated in the foundation of the great
monasteries upon that Holy Mountain. |
 816 Leo III, Pope On
Christmas Day Leo crowned Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in Saint
Peter's Basilica. This was the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire, an
attempt to realize Saint Augustine's ideal of the City of God, which
profoundly affected European history for many centuries
Romæ, in Basílica Vaticána, sancti Leónis
Papæ Tértii, cui erútos ab ímpiis
óculos et præcísam linguam Deus mirabíliter
restítuit.
At Rome, in the Vatican basilica, Pope St. Leo III,
to whom God miraculously restored his eyes and his tongue after they
had been torn out by impious men.
(RM) Born
in Rome, Italy; died June 12, 816; canonized 1673.
816 ST LEO III, POPE
ON the very
day
after the death of Pope Adrian I the electors proceeded to appoint his
successor. Their unanimous choice was the cardinal-priest of St
Susanna, and on
the morrow, December 27, 795, he
was consecrated and enthroned as
Leo III. But there was in Rome a faction bitterly hostile to the new
pope,
mostly turbulent young nobles led by Pope Adrian’s disappointed nephew
and
another ambitious official. In 799 they hatched a plot to render Leo
incapable
of carrying out his pontifical duties. As he was riding in the St
Mark’s day
procession a band of these conspirators attacked him outside the church
of St
Silvester, dragged him from his horse, tried to blind him and to cut
out his tongue,
and left him nearly senseless. That he should have recovered so quickly
and
completely from his hurts as he did was regarded as nothing short of a
miracle.
For a time Leo took
refuge
with the king of the Franks, Charlemagne, who was then at Paderborn;
and on his
return to Rome, where he was received with great rejoicing, a
commission examined
the circumstances of the attempt on his person. The promoters of it
retorted by
making such serious charges against the pope that the commissioners
felt bound
to refer them to Charlemagne. And a few months later the king came to
Rome. On
December 1 a synod was assembled in the Vatican basilica at which he
was
present and Leo’s accusers were invited to appear. They did not do so;
but in
spite of this nolle prosequi it was
considered desirable that Leo should take an oath of innocence of the
charges
made. This he did on December 23 before the same assembly.
On
Christmas day, during Mass in St Peter’s, Pope Leo solemnly
crowned Charlemagne as he knelt before the confessio of
the Apostle; the congregation applauded, the choir
acclaimed Charles—“Long
life and triumph to Charles, the most religious augustus, crowned
by God, the great and peace-loving emperor of the
Romans”—and the pope knelt and did his temporal homage. Thus was
inaugurated
the Holy Roman empire of the West, which was hailed by some of the noblest
minds of that and later ages as the realization of
the ideal set forth by St Augustine in his De civitate Dei. This
spectacular happening, fraught with such far-reaching results, has been
surrounded by a good deal of mystification, some of it unnceessary. But
it is a
matter of general history, civil and ecclesiastical, and need not be
considered
here.
To St Leo
his alliance with the monarch
was of great
benefit. Not only did it enable him to regain some of the patrimony of
the
Roman church and to keep at bay the turbulent elements in the papal
states, but
it also enabled him to intervene successfully in foreign disputes and
to enforce
ecclesiastical discipline in more distant lands. But when the emperor
attempted
to trespass into the field of dogma and pressed him to introduce the
clause
“And the Son” (Filioque) into the Nicene Creed, Leo refused.
He would
not hastily and at the bidding of the secular power admit
innovations—however
doctrinally true—into the liturgy, and he did not wish to alienate his
Byzantine children, whose importance he never underrated.
As long as Charlemagne lived St Leo was able to maintain
order, but after the emperor’s death in 814 troubles immediately broke
out. The
Saracens descended on the coasts of Italy, and in Rome there was
another plot
to murder the pope. By the time order had been restored it was evident
that
Leo’s health had given way; and on June 12, 816, he died after a
pontificate of
twenty years. His name was added to the Roman Martyrology in 1673.
The
pontificate of St Leo III belongs very largely to
general history. There seems to be nothing in the nature of an early
biography
beyond what may be read in the Liber Pontificalis (ed.
Duchesne, vol.
ii, pp. 1—34). A certain number of the letters of this pope are extant,
in
particular his more important communications addressed to Charlemagne.
There is
an account, based upon these materials and upon extracts from the later
chroniclers, in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iii. But, for
the English
reader, the most satisfactory source of information is Mgr Mann’s Lives
of
the Popes, vol. ii (1906), pp. 1—110, in which will also be found
an
adequate bibliography. Mgr Duchesne’s work, Les premiers temps de
l’état
pontifical (1904), deserves special notice ; and among more recent
works
see, in particular, K. Heldmann, Das Kaisertum Karls d. Gr. (1928),
and
in the Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia,
vol.
(1923), pp. 107—119, an article of C. Huelsen on the Life of Leo III in
the Liber
Pontificalis.
Son of Atypius and Elizabeth, Leo was chief of the
pontifical treasury
or wardrobe (vestiarius) and a cardinal-priest of Santa Susanna when he
was elected pope on the day his predecessor, Hadrian I, was buried,
December 26, 795. Hadrian's two nephews both hoped to be made pope
themselves. In 799, they incited a gang of young nobles to attack Leo.
On Saint Mark's day Leo was riding in a procession when these roughs
dragged him from his horse, tried to cut out his tongue and attempted
to blind him. Leo escaped to the monastery of Saint Erasmus with the
help of the duke of Spoleto. There he recovered quickly, miraculously
according to some.
Leo enlisted the help of
the most powerful layman of the age,
Charlemagne, who was at Paderborn. Charlemagne provided troops a few
months later to guard the pope as he journeyed from Paderborn back to
Rome, where he entered the city amid rejoicing. His enemies,
however, did not rest. They accused Leo of perjury and adultery. In
800, Charlemagne came to Rome and appointed learned commissioners to
examine whether any fault in Leo could account for the attacks made on
him. The convened synod found none. Leo took an oath that he was
innocent of any of the charges before the assembled bishops.
On Christmas Day Leo crowned Charlemagne as Holy Roman
Emperor in Saint
Peter's Basilica. This was the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire, an
attempt to realize Saint Augustine's ideal of the City of God, which
profoundly affected European history for many centuries. On this
alliance was founded the unity of medieval Christendom; but opinions
vary about the precise significance of the coronation and whether pope
or emperor gained most from it in authority and protection.
Nevertheless, Leo and the emperor now worked side by side to resolve
quarrels throughout the Holy Roman Empire, and to combat the spread of
Islam.
In 804, Leo visited the emperor and came to an agreement
with him about
the division of the empire among Charlemagne's sons. Leo formally
agreed to it two years later. With Charlemagne's help Adoptionism was
fought in Spain, but when Charlemagne wanted the expression Filioque
("and the Son") added to the Nicene Creed, Leo refused, in part because
he would not permit secular interference in ecclesiastical affairs, and
in part because he did not wish to offend the Byzantine Church.
Generally, the two acted in concert. They settled the dispute between
Canterbury and York (see under Saint Wilfrid). In the quarrel between
Archbishop Wilfrid and King Cenulf of Mercia, Leo intervened, suspended
the archbishop, and put the kingdom under interdict. After the death of
Offa, who had requested that Pope Hadrian create a metropolitan at
Lichfield, Leo restored Canterbury to its former status in 803.
At the suggestion of Charlemagne, Leo also created a fleet
to combat
the Saracens, recovered some of the Church's patrimony in Gaeta with
the emperor's help, and was the beneficiary of much treasure from him.
Charlemagne's bounty permitted Leo to restore many churches both in
Rome and Ravenna, help the poor, and patronize the arts.
When Charlemagne died in 814 and Leo's protection was gone,
his enemies
again rose against him. He crushed one conspiracy by executing the
ringleader, and another revolt by the nobles of Campagna, who planned
to march on Rome, was suppressed by the duke of Spoleto. The saint died
two years after his great ally, Charlemagne (Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer).
Pope Saint Leo is generally depicted in art as he crowns
Charlemagne
[Grandes Chroniques de France, 14th century) (Roeder). A restored,
near-contemporary mosaic survives in the Lateran depicting Saint Peter
giving the pallium to Leo and a standard to Charlemagne (Farmer).
Another image from the Grandes Chroniques de France illustrates the
Torture of Leo III.
Pope St. Leo III
Date of birth unknown; died 816. He was elected on the very
day his
predecessor was buried (26 Dec., 795), and consecrated on the following
day. It is quite possible that this haste may have been due to a desire
on the part of the Romans to anticipate any interference of the Franks
with their freedom of election. Leo was a Roman, the son of Atyuppius
and Elizabeth. At the time of his election he was Cardinal-Priest of
St. Susanna, and seemingly also vestiarius, or chief of the pontifical
treasury, or wardrobe. With the letter informing Charlemagne that he
had been unanimously elected pope, Leo sent him the keys of the
confession of St. Peter, and the standard of the city. This he did to
show that he regarded the Frankish king as the protector of the Holy
See. In return he received from Charlemagne letters of congratulation
and a great part of the treasure which the king had captured from the
Avars. The acquisition of this wealth was one of the causes which
enabled Leo to be such a great benefactor to the churches and
charitable institutions of Rome.
Prompted by jealousy or ambition, or by feelings of hatred
and revenge,
a number of the relatives of Pope Adrian I formed a plot to render Leo
unfit to hold his sacred office. On the occasion of the procession of
the Greater Litanies (25 April, 799), when the pope was making his way
towards the Flaminian Gate, he was suddenly attacked by a body of armed
men. He was dashed to the ground, and an effort was made to root out
his tongue and tear out his eyes. After he had been left for a time
bleeding in the street, he was hurried off at night to the monastery of
St. Erasmus on the Cœlian. There, in what seemed quite a miraculous
manner, he recovered the full use of his eyes and tongue. Escaping from
the monastery, he betook himself to Charlemagne, accompanied by many of
the Romans. He was received by the Frankish king with the greatest
honour at Paderborn, although his enemies had filled the king's ears
with malicious accusations against him. After a few months' stay in
Germany, the Frankish monarch caused him to be escorted back to Rome,
where he was received with every demonstration of joy by the whole
populace, natives and foreigners. The pope's enemies were then tried by
Charlemagne's envoys and, being unable to establish either Leo's guilt
or their own innocence, were sent as prisoners to France (Frankland).
In the following year (800) Charlemagne himself came to Rome, and the
pope and his accusers were brought face to face. The assembled bishops
declared that they had no right to judge the pope; but Leo of his own
free will, in order, as he said, to dissipate any suspicions in men's
minds, declared on oath that he was wholly guiltless of the charges
which had been brought against him. At his special request the death
sentence which had been passed upon his principal enemies was commuted
into a sentence of exile.
A few days later, Leo and
Charlemagne again met. It was on Christmas
Day in St. Peter's. After the Gospel had been sung, the pope approached
Charlemagne, who was kneeling before the Confession of St. Peter, and
placed a crown upon his head. The assembled multitude at once made the
basilica ring with the shout: "To Charles, the most pious Augustus,
crowned by God, to our great and pacific emperor life and victory!" By
this act was revived the Empire in the West, and, in theory, at least,
the world was declared by the Church subject to one temporal head, as
Christ had made it subject to one spiritual head. It was understood
that the first duty of the new emperor was to be the protector of the
Roman Church and of Christendom against the heathen. With a view to
combining the East and West under the effective rule of Charlemagne,
Leo strove to further the project of a marriage between him and the
Eastern empress Irene. Her deposition, however (801), prevented the
realization of this excellent plan. Some three years after the
departure of Charlemagne from Rome (801), Leo again crossed the Alps to
see him (804). According to some he went to discuss with the emperor
the division of his territories between his sons. At any rate, two
years later, he was invited to give his assent to the emperor's
provisions for the said partition. Equally while acting in harmony with
the pope, Charlemagne combatted the heresy of Adoptionism which had
arisen in Spain; but he went somewhat further than his spiritual guide
when he wished to bring about the general insertion of the Filioque in
the Nicene Creed. The two were, however, acting together when Salzburg
was made the metropolitical city for Bavaria, and when Fortunatus of
Grado was compensated for the loss of his see of Grado by the gift of
that of Pola. The joint action of the pope and the emperor was felt
even in England. Through it Eardulf of Northumbria recovered his
kingdom, and the dispute between Eanbald, Archbishop of York, and
Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, was regulated.
Leo had, however, many relations with England solely on his
own
account. By his command the synod of Beccanceld (or Clovesho, 803),
condemned the appointing of laymen as superiors of monasteries. In
accordance with the wishes of Ethelheard, Archbishop of Canterbury, Leo
excommunicated Eadbert Praen for seizing the throne of Kent, and
withdrew the pallium which had been granted to Litchfield, authorizing
the restoration of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the See of
Canterbury "just as St. Gregory the Apostle and Master of the nation of
the English had arranged it". Leo was also called upon to intervene in
the quarrels between Archbishop Wulfred and Cenulf, King of Mercia.
Very little is known of the real causes of the misunderstandings
between them, but, whoever was the more to blame, the archbishop seems
to have had the more to suffer. The king appears to have induced the
pope to suspend him from the exercise of his episcopal functions, and
to keep the kingdom under a kind of interdict for a period of six
years. Till the hour of his death (822), greed of gold caused Cenulf to
continue his persecution of the archbishop. It also caused him to
persecute the monastery of Abingdon, and it was not until he had
received from its abbot a large sum of money that, acting, as he
declared, at the request of "the lord Apostolic and most glorious Pope
Leo", he decreed the inviolability of the monastery.
During the pontificate of
Leo, the Church of Constantinople was in a
state of unrest. The monks, who at this period were flourishing under
the guidance of such men as St. Theodore the Studite, were suspicious
of what they conceived to be the lax principles of their patriarch
Tarasius, and were in vigorous opposition to the evil conduct of their
emperor Constantine VI. To be free to marry Theodota, their sovereign
had divorced his wife Maria. Though Tarasius condemned the conduct of
Constantine, still, to avoid greater evils, he refused, to the profound
disgust of the monks, to excommunicate him. For their condemnation of
his new marriage Constantine punished the monks with imprisonment and
exile. In their distress the monks turned for help to Leo, as they did
when they were maltreated for opposing the arbitrary reinstatement of
the priest whom Tarasius had degraded for marrying Constantine to
Theodota. The pope replied, not merely with words of praise and
encouragement, but also by the dispatch of rich presents; and, after
Michael I came to the Byzantine throne, he ratified the treaty between
him and Charlemagne which was to secure peace for East and West.
Not only in the last
mentioned transaction, but in all matters of
importance, did the pope and the Frankish emperor act in concert. It
was on Charlemagne's advice that, to ward off the savage raids of the
Saracens, Leo maintained a fleet, and caused his coast line to be
regularly patrolled by his ships of war. But because he did not feel
competent to keep the Moslem pirates out of Corsica, he entrusted the
guarding of it to the emperor. Supported by Charlemagne, he was able to
recover some of the patrimonies of the Roman Church in the
neighbourhood of Gaeta, and again to administer them through his
rectors. But when the great emperor died (28 Jan., 814), evil times
once more broke on Leo. Af fresh conspiracy was formed against him, but
on this occasion the pope was apprised of it before it came to a head.
He caused the chief conspirators to be seized and executed. No sooner
had this plot been crushed than a number of nobles of the Campagna rose
in arms and plundered the country. They were preparing to march on Rome
itself, when they were overpowered by the Duke of Spoleto, acting under
the orders of the King of Italy (Langobardia). The large sums of money
which Charlemagne gave to the papal treasury enabled Leo to become an
efficient helper of the poor and a patron of art, and to renovate the
churches, not only of Rome, but even of Ravenna. He employed the
imperishable art of mosaic not merely to portray the political
relationship between Charlemagne and himself, but chiefly to decorate
the churches, especially his titular church of St. Susanna. Up to the
end of the sixteenth century a figure of Leo in mosaic was to be seen
in that ancient church.
Leo III was buried in St.
Peter's (12 June, 816), where his relics are
to be found along with those of Sts. Leo I, Leo II, and Leo IV. He was
canonized in 1673. The silver denarii of Leo III still extant bear the
name of the Frankish emperor upon them as well as that of Leo, showing
thereby the emperor as the protector of the Church, and overlord of the
city of Rome. |
| 885 St. Gerebald Bishop of Chalons sur
Seine, France, from 864 until
his death. |
855
St. Odulf Augustinian
canon established a church among the Frisians and founded a monastery
at
Stavoren
Also Odulphus, an Augustinian
canon.
Born in Oorsch, North Brabant, he was named a canon of Utrecht and
received ordination before taking part in the missionary enterprise in
Friesland being undertaken by Bishop St. Frederick of Utrecht. Odulf
established a church among the Frisians and founded a monastery at
Stavoren. He died at Utrecht. His relics were stolen in 1034, but were
eventually taken to London and placed at Evesham.
855 St Odulf
The most successful of the
missionaries who helped St
Frederick to complete the evangelization of Friesland was undoubtedly
St Odulf;
churches dedicated to him are still to be found in Holland and Belgium.
He was
born at Oorschot in North Brabant, and after his ordination he had
charge of
his native town; but afterwards he transferred to Utrecht, where
he attracted
the favourable notice of St Frederick, bishop of the diocese. His
eloquence as
a preacher as well as his learning induced Frederick to send him to
Friesland,
the inhabitants of which were only partially converted. There St Odulf
spent
many years labouring with great fruit. According to the old chronicler
he
converted his hearers by reiterated instructions—preaching to the
people and leading
them into the way of truth through frequent admonitions, arguments, and
rebukes, “until the men who had formerly been, as it were, ferocious
wolves,
had been transformed by sound doctrine into peaceable sheep”. Although
he
worked in all parts of the Zaanland, his headquarters were at Stavoren;
there
he had his church, and there he founded a monastery. In spite of
invitations to
return to his own country, he persevered in his missionary work until
he was
very old. He then returned to Utrecht, where he died about the year 855.
His
body disappeared from its shrine, probably in a raid by the Northmen,
and seems
to have been taken to England and to have found a resting-place at
Evesham
Abbey, in the year 1034.
At the
beginning of the thirteenth
century, a most
unpleasant story was somehow copied into an English manuscript
(Rawlinson A
287, in the Bodleian) which contains the Chronicle of Evesham. It is
there
narrated that St Odulf when in Friesland, and himself in the act of
offering
Mass at Eastertide, was admonished by an angel to make all haste and go
aboard
a ship, because his friend St Frederick had fallen into a terrible sin,
but was
nevertheless purporting to offer the Holy Sacrifice. The ship was
wafted to
Utrecht with inconceivable rapidity, and Odulf was in time to warn his
friend,
to hear his confession, and to celebrate Mass in his stead. Then
Frederick
disappeared for ten years to do strenuous penance, and St Odulf
meanwhile took
his place as bishop. At the end of the ten years, Frederick, now a
model of
every virtue, resumed his episcopal duties and in the end died famous
for the
miracles he had wrought. There is not, of course, a shadow of
foundation for
this in sober history, but the insertion of such a piece of scandal
affords a
curious illustration of the medieval tendency to cherish every story
which
chronicled the failings of the great.
The not
very reliable life of St Odulf printed in the Acta
Sanctorum; June, vol. iii, has also been partly edited in Pertz,
MGH., Scriptores, vol. xv, pp. 356—358. See also Macray, Chronicle
of
Evesham (Rolls
Series), pp. 313—320; and Stanton, English Menology, pp.
265—267.
Odulf of Stavoren, OSA (AC) (also known as Odulphus) Born in
Oorschot,
Brabant; died in Utrecht, June 12, c. 855; feasts of his translations
on October 10 and November 24. In his youth, Odulf was remarkable both
for his intelligence and his piety. He was ordained a priest and
appointed canon of Utrecht by Saint Frederick. A few years later
Frederick sent him to evangelize the partially converted Frisians. He
founded a church and monastery of Augustinian canons at Stavoren, which
became his center of operations for many years. He retired to Utrecht,
where his body was enshrined and his cultus grew after his death. Many
churches are dedicated to him in both the Netherlands and Belgium.
His relics are said to have been stolen in 1034 by Viking
pirates and
taken to London. Bishop Aelfward of London bought them for a huge sum
and gave them to Evesham Abbey, which he still governed. A later Norman
abbot, Walter, tried to move them to Winchcombe, but the shrine became
so heavy as they continued toward their destination that they had to
turn back; it became light as a feather the closer they got to Evesham.
Another time, Queen Edith tried to take some of Odulf's relics for her
private collection, and was blinded. Thus, says the chronicler, Odulf
demonstrated his desire to remain at Evesham. Unfortunately, these are
probably not Odulf's relics. They were supposedly stolen from Stavoren,
while the Utrecht tradition says they have never been translated from
their original burial spot there (Benedictines, Farmer). In art, Saint
Odulf is an Augustinian canon with a bowl for baptizing in his hand
(Roeder). |
 10th v.
John-Tornike Eristavi (a Georgian title, meaning literally “head of the
army.” a perfect example of humility. He renounced his own will
completely and
would do nothing without a blessing from his spiritual father. “I
entrust myself and my will to you. Save me according to your will!”
An eristavi was the ruler or governor of his province and a
pillar of
the Georgian monarchy. During certain periods of Georgian history the
title was hereditary. The title is equivalent to a European duke.)
(later John of Mt. Athos) was a Georgian army commander famed for his
victories in war and a favorite of King David Kuropalates. Eventually
he abandoned his worldly glory and set off in search of his spiritual
father, St. John, on Mt. Olympus. There he learned that St. John had
moved to Mt. Athos, so he journeyed there and settled with him in a
monastery headed by St. Athanasius the Athonite. He was tonsured a monk
and given the new name John.
Soon many Georgians became thirsty for the ascetic life and
arrived to
labor on the Holy Mountain. To serve the young community, St. John
built a church in honor of St. John the Theologian and constructed
cells nearby. In such a way, the first Georgian community on Mt. Athos
was established.
At that time, Bardas Sclerus, commander of the army of Asia
Minor, led
a revolt against Basil and Constantine, the young Byzantine emperors.
The dowager empress Theophania, hoping to receive assistance from
Georgia, requested that John-Tornike travel to his homeland, inform the
king about the difficult situation in Byzantium, and rally the Georgian
armies for support. At first John-Tornike refused, doubting his
preparedness to return to life in the world. But after the other
brothers pleaded with him and he received St. Athanasius’ blessing, he
returned to Georgia and delivered Theophania’s letter to King David
Kuropalates. The king was overjoyed at the sight of his favorite
military leader, and he consented to the empress’ request, provided
John-Tornike would command the army. The king was resolute and
John-Tornike was compelled to honor his will. With God’s help and under
the wise leadership of John-Tornike, twelve thousand Georgian soldiers
defeated the army of the godless Bardas Sclerus, banishing the
conspirator from Byzantium (ca. 979).
After this great victory John-Tornike returned immediately
to Mt.
Athos. The brothers met him with great joy and gave thanks to God for
returning him safely to the monastery.
St. John-Tornike was a perfect example of humility. He
renounced his
own will completely and would do nothing without a blessing from his
spiritual father. “I entrust myself and my will to you. Save me
according to your will!” he would tell St. John.
|
1080 Eskil (Eskill)
bishop of Strangnäss remains were exposed to the veneration of the
faithful, and were honored with miracles BM (AC) feast
day formerly June 13.
1080 St Eskil, Bishop And Martyr
The name of St Eskil does
not appear in the Roman
Martyrology, but until the Reformation he was honoured in northern
Europe as
one of the most illustrious martyrs of Scandinavia. He was said to be
English,
a kinsman of St Sigfrid, whom he accompanied on his mission to
reconvert Sweden
which had almost entirely lapsed into paganism since the death of St
Anskar,
its first apostle, in the ninth century. He was consecrated bishop at
Strängnäs,
and from that circumstance later writers have described him as
bishop of Strängnäs;
but the see was not founded until 1245, and Eskil was probably a
regionary
bishop. He laboured with success in Södermanland, making many
converts during
the reign of King Inge, who encouraged and supported the missionaries.
Inge,
however, was murdered, and under Sweyn the Bloody a pagan reaction set
in. A
great heathen festival was held at Strängnäs which was
attended by many who had
professed to be Christians: <>St
Eskil
hastened to the assembly and appealed to the people
to abandon their pagan rites. Finding them deaf to his remonstrances he
is said
to have appealed to God to give a visible sign that He alone was the
true God.
Instantly a violent storm arose which destroyed the altar and its
sacrifice,
while sparing the bishop and his attendants. The pagans ascribed this
wonder to
magic and by the king’s orders they stoned the saint to death. The
place where
his body was laid in 1082 is called after him, Eskilstuna.
There
are two medieval lives (neither very
satisfactory), both of which may be found in Scriptores rerum
Suecicarum, vol.
ii, part i, pp. 389—404. See also the Acta Sanctorum, June,
vol. iii,
and especially S. Lindquist, Den helige Eskils biskopsdöme (1915),
and
Toni Schmid, in Scandia, vol. iv (1931), pp. 102—114. A short
English
account is in C. J. A. Oppermann, English Missionaries in Sweden (1937),
pp. 103—111; but on this book see Analecta Bollandiana, vol.
lvii
(1939), pp. 162—164.
Eskil is said to have been an
Englishman
and a relative of Saint Sigfrid, whom he accompanied on the latter's
mission to reconvert Sweden, whose people had returned to paganism
following the death of Saint Ansgar. Sigfrid consecrated him bishop of
Strangnäss. Eskil preached the Gospel with some success in
Södermanland, until the heathens reacted after the murder of the
friendly king Inge. Then, because he had protested against an
idolatrous festival and called down a violent storm that destroyed a
pagan altar and its sacrifices, he was stoned to death by the people at
Strangnäss. His body was buried on the spot where he died. Within
a short time a church was built there in which his sacred remains were
exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and were honored with
miracles. Prior to the Reformation, Saint Eskil was greatly honored in
Sweden, and the place where he was buried, Eskilstuna, was named after
him (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth). |
| 7th
v. St.
Cuniald & Geslar
Confessors |
| 1138 St. Chirstian
Bishop and brother of St. Malachy of Armagh. His
Celtic name was Croistan O'Morgair. In 1126, Christian was named the
bishop of Clogher, in Ireland. |
| 1175 St. Marinus,
Vimius, & Zimius The “Three
Holy Exiles’ They were
Benedictines at the Scottish St. James
Abbey in Regensburg, Germany. They became hermits at Griestatten. |
1298 Blessed
Jolenta
(Yolanda) of Poland daughter of Bela IV, King of Hungary. Her
sister, St. Kunigunde miracles, down to our own day, occurr at her
grave
1299 BD JOLENTA OF HUNGARY, WIDOW
JOLENTA, or Helena as she is called by the Poles, was one of four
sisters who are honoured with the title of Blessed. They were the
daughters of Bela IV, King of Hungary, the nieces of St Elizabeth, the
great-nieces of St Hedwig, and lineal descendants of the Hungarian
kings St Stephen and St Ladislaus. When she was five years old, Jolenta
was committed to the care of her elder sister, Bd Cunegund, or Kinga,
who had married Boleslaus II, King of Poland. Under their fostering
care, the little girl grew up a pattern of virtue. She became the wife
of Duke Boleslaus of Kalisz, with whom she spent a happy married life.
Both of them were addicted to good works, and together they made
various religious foundations. Jolenta was beloved by all, but
especially by the poor, for whom she had a tender love. After the death
of her husband, as soon as she had settled two of her daughters, she
retired with the third and with Bd Cunegund, now, like herself, a
widow, into the convent of Poor Clares which Cunegund had established
at Sandeck. Jolenta's later years, however, were spent at Gnesen as
superior of the convent of which she had been the foundress. She died
there in 1299.
See J. B.
Prileszky, Acta Sanctorum Hungariae,
vol. ii, Appendix, pp. 54-55; Hueber, Menologium
Franciscanum, p. 918; and cf. the bibliography attached to Bd
Cunegund on July 24.
She was married to the
Duke of Poland. Jolenta was
sent to Poland where her sister was to supervise her education.
Eventually married to Boleslaus, the Duke of Greater Poland, Jolenta
was able to use her material means to assist the poor, the sick, widows
and orphans. Her husband joined her in building hospitals, convents and
churches so that he was surnamed "the Pious."
Upon the death of her husband and the marriage
of two of
her daughters, Jolenta and her third daughter entered the convent of
the Poor Clares. War forced Jolenta to move to another convent where,
despite her reluctance, she was made abbess.
So well did she serve her Franciscan sisters
by word and
example that her fame and good works continued to spread beyond the
walls of the cloister. Her favorite devotion was the Passion of Christ.
Indeed, Jesus appeared to her, telling her of her coming death.
Many miracles, down to our own day, are said to have occurred at her
grave.
Comment: Jolenta’s
story begins like a fairy tale. But fairy tales
seldom
include the death of the prince and never end with the princess living
out her days in a convent. Nonetheless, Jolenta’s story has a happy
ending. Her life of charity toward the poor and devotion to her
Franciscan sisters indeed brought her to a “happily ever after.” Our
lives may be short on fairy-tale elements, but our generosity and our
willingness to serve well the people we live with lead us toward an
ending happier than we can imagine.
|
 1447 Saint
Arsenius of Konevits a native of Novgorod, coppersmith by trade tonsure
at the Lisich monastery near Novgorod, where he spent eleven years went
to Mount Athos in 1373, and there he spent
three years, dwelling in prayer and making copper vessels for the
brethren. In the year 1393, St Arsenius returned to Russia and
brought with him an icon of the Mother of God, which was later called
the Konevits Icon. St Arsenius went with this icon to the island of
Konevets on Lake Ladoga, where he spent five years in solitude.
In 1398, with the blessing of Archbishop John of Novgorod,
St Arsenius
laid the foundations of a cenobitic monastery dedicated to the Nativity
of the Most Holy Theotokos. He visited Athos a second time, and asked
the holy Fathers for their prayers and a blessing for his
monastery. In 1421 the lake flooded, destroying the monastery
structures. This forced St Arsenius to relocate the monastery to a new
site on the island. St Arsenius died in 1447, and was buried in the
monastery church. His Life was written in the sixteenth century by
Igumen Barlaam of Konevits.
 Konevets Island
(Finnish: Kononsaari) has the maximum length of 5 km; its average width
is 2 km. The island is separated from the mainland by a 5-km-wide
strait. In the Middle Ages, the island was considered holy by the
Finnish tribes who particularly revered a huge boulder in the shape of
a horse's skull, weighing more than 750 tons. This boulder is known as
Kon'-Kamen' (literally, "Steed-Stone") and gives its name to the
island.
The monastery was founded
around 1393 by St. Arseny Konevsky, who
wished to convert pagan Finns to Christianity. The location of the
monastery was changed several times, in order to avert floods. The
cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos was founded by St. Arseny in
1428. The Swedes captured the island during the Ingrian War, forcing
the monks to retreat to Novgorod. Only after Russia retook the
territory in the course of the Great Northern War they were allowed to
reclaim their ancient possessions in Konevets. The revived cloister
depended upon Novgorod until 1760, when it was officially recognized as
a separate monastic establishment. In 1812, after the Finnish War the
monastery administratively became part of the newly-formed Grand Duchy
of Finland, along with the rest of "Old Finland".
The golden age of the monastery came with the 19th century,
when its
fame spread to the imperial capital and the island was frequented by
eminent visitors from Saint Petersburg, including Alexandre Dumas and
Fyodor Tyutchev. As a consequence of its high profile, the monastic
community could fund extensive building projects, starting with the
construction of a new cathedral in 1800-09. This huge two-storey
eight-pillared building was designed by a local starets. It is
surmounted by five octagonal drums bearing five blue bud-shaped domes.
The same style is applied to the three-storey belltower (1810-12),
rising to the height of 35 meters. Two sketae were set up to mark the
ancient locations of the monastery.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the monastery passed
to the newly
independent Finland, and came under the jurisdiction of the autonomous
Finnish Orthodox Church. The island was fortified by the
Konevets_Theotokos_Valamo_Monastery_Finland_Front_Back
 Finnish military.
During the Winter War and Continuation War the monastery buildings were
damaged. On 13 March 1940 the monks escaped from the Soviets to
Finland, taking the holy icon with them, but leaving the iconostasis,
church bells, and the library. The monks subsequently joined the monks
escaping from the Valaam Monastery and founded the New Valamo Monastery
in Finland.
During the Soviet period, the monastery housed a military
unit. In 1990
it became one of the first monasteries in the region to be revived by
the Russian Orthodox Church. In November 1991, the brethren announced
the discovery of St. Arseny's relics, that apparently had been hidden
from the Swedes in 1573. By 2004, the Konevsky Monastery, which hosts a
large number of tourists and pilgrims, had been mostly restored. |
|
1450 Bd Stephen
Bandelli; doctor
of canon law, University of Pavia professorship, honoured
as a
saint and a wonder-worker;
One of the most
successful preachers of the Dominican Order in the first half of the
fifteenth
century was Friar Stephen Bandelli. He was born in 1369 in northern
Italy, and
received the Dominican habit at Piacenza. His piety and obedience were
an
inspiration to his brethren, while his learning obtained for him the
degree of
doctor of canon law and a professorship in the University of Pavia. But
it was
in the pulpit and in the confessional that he specially shone. Wherever
he
preached, in Liguria and elsewhere, crowds assembled to hear him, and
innumerable sinners were converted from the error of their ways. He
died at the
age of eighty-one at Saluzzo, in the diocese of Turin, and was honoured
as a
saint and a wonder-worker. Thirty-seven years after his death, when
Saluzzo was
surrounded by a hostile force, strange forms appeared in the sky, which
were
held to be those of our Lady and Bd Stephen; the enemy withdrew without
laying
siege to the town, and the people of Saluzzo, in gratitude to Bd
Stephen,
instituted an annual procession in his honour. Pope Pius IX.
confirmed
his ancient cultus in 1856.
See
Seeböck, Die
Herrlichkeit der Katholischen Kirche, pp. 127 seq. Procter,
Lives of Dominican
Saints, pp. 174-175; Taurisano, Catalogus
Hagiographicus O.P.
|
 1463
St. John
of
Sahagun educated by the
Benedictine monks of Fagondez monastery there and when twenty, received
a canonry from the bishop of Burgos Augustinian friar famous for his
miracles, and had the gift of reading men's souls
Sancti Joánnis a sancto Facúndo, ex Eremitárum
sancti Augustíni Ordine, Confessóris, qui migrávit
in cælum prídie hujus diéi.
St. John of St. Facundus, confessor of the Order of the Hermits of St.
Augustine, who died on the 11th of June.
1479 St
John of Sahagun; granted to behold with bodily
eyes the human form of our Lord
at the moment of
consecration; was glorified by many miracles, both before and after his
death.
There
was an early Spanish
martyr named Facundus, and he seems to have been adopted as patron by
the abbey
of Sahagun or San Fagondez in the kingdom of Leon. This locality was
the
birthplace of this John, and from it he derives his distinctive
surname. His
early education he received from the monks in the Benedictine monastery
just
mentioned. While he was yet a boy, his father, Don Juan Gonzalez de
Castrillo,
procured for him a small benefice, and when he was twenty the bishop of
Burgos
gave him a canonry in his cathedral, although the abbot of San Fagondez
had
already presented him with three other livings. Pluralism was one of
the chief
abuses of the age, but was leniently regarded in many quarters as being
a
necessary evil in view of the alleged meagreness of many stipends. John
from
his early youth led a moral, upright life—exemplary in the eyes of
ordinary
Christians—but as he grew older he was led by divine grace to see much
that was
imperfect in his conduct and to set himself seriously to amend.
He had received the
priesthood in 1445, and his conscience reproached him for disobeying
the
Church’s ordinances against pluralities. He accordingly resigned all
his
benefices except the chapel of St Agatha in Burgos. There he daily
celebrated
Mass, frequently catechized the ignorant, and preached, leading the
while a
very mortified life in evangelical poverty. Realizing the necessity for
a
sounder knowledge of theology, he then obtained the bishop’s permission
to go
to Salamanca University, where he studied for four years.
His course
completed, he soon won a great reputation as a preacher and director of
souls
in the parish of St Sebastian, Salamanca, which he seems to have worked
while
holding one of the chaplaincies in the College of St Bartholomew. Nine
years
were thus spent, and then St John, faced with the ordeal of a severe
operation,
vowed that if his life were spared he would receive the religious
habit. The
operation having proved successful, he made his application to the
superior of
the local community of Augustinian friars, who admitted him with
alacrity, for
his merits were known to all. A year later, on August 28, 1464, he was
professed. He had already so fully acquired the spirit of his rule that
no one
in the convent was more mortified, more obedient, more humble or more
detached
than he. He spoke with such eloquence and fervour that his sermons,
coupled
with his private exhortations, produced a complete reformation of
manners in
Salamanca. He had a wonderful gift for healing dissensions and
succeeded in
ending many of the feuds which were the bane of society, especially
amongst the
young nobles. Not only did he induce his penitents to forgive
injuries and to
forego revenge, but he led many of them to return good for evil.
Soon after his
profession St John was appointed novice-master, an office he discharged
with
great wisdom. Seven times in succession he was definitor and he also
became
prior of Salamanca. It was a house which was famous for its discipline,
and
that discipline St John maintained far more by his example than by
severity,
for the high opinion everyone had of his sanctity lent the greatest
weight to
his advice and admonitions. He was, moreover, endowed with a judicious
discernment and with a remarkable gift for reading the thoughts of his
penitents. He heard the confessions of all who presented themselves,
but was
rigid in refusing, or at least deferring, absolution in the case of
habitual
sinners, or of ecclesiastics who did not live in accordance with the
spirit of
their profession. His fervour in offering the divine sacrifice edified
all
present, although his superior sometimes reproved him for the length of
time he
took in celebrating Mass. We are also told that he was one of those to
whom it
has been granted to behold with bodily eyes the human form of our Lord
at the
moment of consecration. The graces he received in his prayers and
communions
also gave him courage and eloquence in the pulpit. Without respect of
persons
he reproved vice in high places with a vigour which sometimes drew upon
him
persecution and even physical violence.
A sermon at Alba, in
the course of which he sternly denounced rich landlords who oppressed
their
poor tenants, so enraged the Duke of Alba that he sent two assassins to
kill
the bold preacher. In the presence of their intended victim, however,
the men
were struck with remorse, confessed their errand and humbly implored
his
forgiveness. On another occasion certain women of the city whose loose
life he
had reproved attempted to stone him, and were only prevented from
causing him
grievous injury by the appearance of a patrol of archers. A prominent
personage
whose unblushing association with a woman not his wife was causing
grave
scandal in Salamanca was induced by St John to sever the connection
entirely.
The woman vowed vengeance on the holy man and it was generally believed
that
the disorder of which he died was occasioned by poison administered at
her
instigation. He passed away on June 11, 1479. He
was glorified by many miracles, both before and
after his death,
and was canonized in 1690.
The most
reliable source for
the life of St John of Sahagun is an account written by John of Seville
in the
form of letters addressed to Duke Gonsalvo of Cordova. They have been
translated into Latin from the original Spanish, and are printed in the
Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iii. The
Bollandists have also collected a certain amount of information from
other
later writers. There is also a summary written about a hundred years
after the
death of St John by his fellow Augustinian, the famous preacher, Bd
Alphonsus
d’Orozco. It will be found printed in M. Vidal, Agustinos de Salamanca, vol. i (1751), pp. 51 seq. The
best modern life seems to be
that by T. Camara (1891) in
Spanish. Seventeenth-century lives in Spanish
and French are numerous; several are mentioned in U. Chevalier’s Bio-Bibliographie.
John Gonzales de Castrillo
was born at Sahagun, Leon Spain.
He was educated by the
Benedictine monks of Fagondez monastery there and when twenty, received
a canonry from the bishop of Burgos, though he already had several
benefices. He was ordained in 1445; concerned about the evil of
pluralism, he resigned all his benefices except that of St. Agatha in
Burgos. He spent the next four years studying at the University of
Salamanca and then began to preach. In the next decade he achieved a
great reputation as a preacher and spiritual director, but after
recovering after a serious operation, became an Augustinian friar in 1463 and was
professed the following year. He served as master of novices,
definitor, prior at Salamanca, experienced visions, was famous for his miracles, and had the gift of
reading men's souls. He denounced evil in high places and
several attempts were made on his life. He died at Sahagun on June 11,
reportedly poisoned by the mistress of a man he had convinced to leave
her. He was canonized in 1690 as St. John of Sahagun.
John of Sahagun, OSA (RM) (also known as John of Saint
Facundo) Born at
Sahagun, León, Spain, c. 1430 (?); died in Salamanca, June 11,
1479; beatified in 1601; canonized in 1690.
Saint John was educated by the Benedictines at the great
abbey of his
native Sahagun (from Sant'Facun). While he was still a boy, his father,
Don Juan Gonzalez de Castrillo, procured for him a small benefice. The
bishop of Burgos and the abbot of Sahagun gave him four other benefices
by the time he was 20, because his family was influential and these
leaders recognized a promise of greatest in John. Thus, when John was
ordained in 1453, he held five benefices in Burgos at the same time
without holding residence in any of them--two acts of disobedience to
Church ordinances. Instead he was majordomo in the household of the
bishop.
Repenting of such pluralism upon the bishop's death, he gave
up all but
the one assigned to the chapel of Saint Agnes in Burgos, where he
celebrated the Eucharist daily, catechized the ignorant, and preached.
He had converted his life to one of evangelical poverty. With this
benefice John financed his theological studies at the University of
Salamanca. The education he received there gave him the confidence he
need to minister more effectively in the nearby parish of Saint
Sebastian, while holding a chaplaincy in the College of Saint
Bartholomew.
At that time Salamanca was deeply divided and crime-ridden,
which gave
John ample opportunity to preach reconciliation and conversion. He
followed up his preaching with individual counselling in the
confessional. John had a remarkable gift for reading souls, which drew
still more to his confessional. He was rigid in refusing or deferring
absolution to habitual sinners and ecclesiastics who did not live in
accordance with the spirit of their profession. John's fervor in
offering the Mass edified all who assisted. In fact, it is related that
he was privileged to see the bodily form of Jesus at the moment of
consecration. The grace God poured into his soul during his prayers and
communions overflowed into his preaching--especially against vice in
high places.
After a grave illness in 1463, he requested entry into the
Augustinian
friary in the same city and was professed on August 28, 1464. Soon
after he undertook the office of novice-master, while continuing his
public preaching. His work for reconciliation bore fruit: a pact of
peace was signed by hostile parties in 1476. About that time he was
elected prior by his community.
In 1479, John predicted his own death, which occurred the
same year. At
Alba de Tormes his life was threatened by two thugs hired by the duke
because of his public denunciation of oppressive landlords. In John's
presence, however, the would-be assassins were struck with remorse,
confessed their errand, and begged his forgiveness. But John's
preaching brought further rancor. It is said that John's death was
hastened by poisoning, brought about by a woman in Salamanca whose
paramour he had reformed.
By his fearless preaching,
John effected profound change in the social
life of Salamanca; for this he won the popular acclamation of apostle
of Salamanca. Soon after his death, miracles and pilgrimages occurred
at his tomb. His relics survive in a feretory in the cathedral of his
adopted city of which he is patron. In art, he is portrayed with a host
in his hand in memory of his devotion to the Eucharist (Attwater,
Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Walsh). |
1542 Monk Stephen
of Ozersk and Komel'sk led a strict life granted to see the MostHoly
Virgin and Saint Nicholas, who besought the
Mother of God to bless Saint Stephen to establish a monastery. In the
year 1534 the Monk Stephen built a church in the name of Saint Nicholas
Born in the latter half of the XV Century in the Vologda
lands. His
father served at the prince's court, but the mundane life was not for
the soul of the youth. He went off to the Glushitsk monastery of the
Monk Dionysii, where he soon accepted monastic tonsure. With the
blessing of the Glushitsk hegumen, the Monk Stephen made the rounds of
the northern monasteries, in order to discover the spiritual customs.
Having returned to the Vologda lands, he settled near the source of the
River Komela. The Monk Stephen led a strict life. Once during the time
of tearful prayer the monk was granted to see the MostHoly Virgin and
Saint Nicholas, who besought the Mother of God to bless Saint Stephen
to establish a monastery. In the year 1534 the Monk Stephen built a
church in the name of Saint Nicholas. The monk reposed peacefully in
the year 1542. |
1592 Saint Onuphrius
of Mala and Pskov [Izborsk] founded a monastery in honor of the
Nativity of the Mother of God at Mala, four versts from Izborsk and 56
versts from Pskov
The saint died on June 12, 1592 and was buried in the
Nativity church,
in a chapel named for him.
The memory of St Onuphrius is
also celebrated on the so-called "Malsk Sunday," the first Sunday after
the Peter and Paul Fast. |
1626 Blessed Louis Naisen a seven year
old
Japanese boy, son of Blessed John and Monica Naisen. He was beheaded in
Nagasaki (Benedictines). M (AC)
Born in 1619; beatified in
1867. |
 1650
Anna of Kashin
died on October 2, 1338. The
Holy Right- Believing Princess; solemn
transfer of her relics from the
wooden Dormition cathedral into the stone Resurrection church took
place on June 12, 1650; many miracles took place at her tomb; A Church council decided to
glorify the holy Princess Anna as a saint, and her holy relics were
uncovered on July 21, 1649. The solemn transfer of her relics from the
wooden Dormition cathedral into the stone Resurrection church took
place on June 12, 1650.
However, the memory of St Anna, who had received a crown of
glory from
Christ, could not be erased by decree. People continued to love and
venerate her, and many miracles took place at her tomb.
On June 12, 1909 her second glorification took place, and
her
universally observed Feast day was established. Her Life describes her
as a model of spiritual beauty and chastity, and an example to future
generations. |
| 1894 St. Cunera A
British virgin venerated in Germany. |
 1971 Blessed Manuel
Lozano Garrido
Also known as Lolo (nickname) Memorial 3 November
Profile
Joined Catholic Action at age 11. As a teenager during the Spanish
Civil War he visited prisoners and would sneak them Holy Communion; he
developed a strong devotion to the Eucharist and spent a Holy Thursday
in prison alone with a Host hidden in some flowers. Lifelong layman,
and a working journalist in the diocese of Jaén, Spain. In 1942
he contracted spondylitis, and a slow paralysis began to set in; a year
later was confined to a wheelchair, a condition that would last the
rest of his life. He lost his sight in 1962; when he lost use of his
right hand, he learned to write with his left; when it became
paralyzed, he dictated his work to his sister. Though he progressively
lost use of his body, he worked for newspapers, Catholic periodicals
and the Associated Press, founded the magazine Sinai, won the
prestigious Bravo award for journalism in 1969, and wrote nine books on
spirituality.
Born 9 August 1920 in Linares, Jaén, Spain
Died 3 November 1971 in Linares, Jaén, Spain of natural causes
Venerated 17 December 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI (decree of heroic
virtues)
Beatified 12 June 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI
recognition to be celebrated in Linares, Jaén, Spain, presided
by Archbishop Angelo Amato
|
Mary Mother of GOD June 12 - Mary
Queen of China (Shanghai, 1924) 
Saint of the Day June 12 Prídie Idus Júnii. 
Among the most important titles we have in
the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory
and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of
the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom.
The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our
Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for
the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope
Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City
praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing
the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in
using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require
spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had
its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.